Airplanes, Spandules and Widgets, Oh, My!
by LTAOZFAN
Summary: There's something strange at the old airport? Who you gonna call? Team Possible! Kim, Ron and Rufus are asked to find out Who or What is sabotaging a group of old-time airplanes. And it might just turn out to be Something Very Strange!
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Disclaimer:** All characters, locations, events and situations in this story that are borrowed from the _Kim Possible_ TV series are the property of the Disney company. All aircraft mentioned in this story are the creations of their designers. The plot and other characters are the product of my brain and thus are my responsibility.

**Airplanes, Spandules and Widgets, Oh, My! - Part One**

"You can wait here in the pilots' lounge, Miss Possible," said the manager of the local air service. "And please let me know if you need anything."

"Thank you, we will," Kim replied. Ron Stoppable had already seated himself on one of the couches in the room, while Rufus had come out of his usual pocket of Ron's pants and was sitting on Ron's shoulder.

"We owe you a lot, folks," the manager went on. "One of those Lowardian machines was about a quarter mile away from the field when you pulled the plug on that invasion. Thanks to you, we had no damage at all."

"Glad we could help, dude," Ron answered, and Rufus gave a chirp that sounded like "Okay!"

After the manager had left them, Kim sat down beside Ron, and they began to talk over some of the events of the past ten weeks. Graduation and the foiled Lowardian invasion were included, of course, but the question of their college choices and plans for the future held a higher priority. Their current mission was also discussed, since being asked to help find out why things kept going wrong with a collection of old airplanes was a bit unusual, even for Kim and Ron.

"Wade said that one of the people from the airfield would meet us here." Kim pulled a picture and a sheet of paper from her backpack and glanced at them.

"It's a lady pilot, and this is her picture." Kim held the snapshot for Ron to see, while Rufus leaned forward from his perch to study the picture. "Her name is Flo Lowe," Kim added.

"Flo Lo?" Ron raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure that's the right picture, KP? That name sounds sorta Chinese."

"Actually my ancestors come from New England; ten generations at least." The sudden comment from directly behind them made Kim and Ron jump to their feet and whirl about in surprise. Rufus managed to hang on to Ron's collar, or he would have been tossed off by the speed of the turn. Facing Team Possible was a stocky, dark-haired woman who was about an inch taller than Ron. She looked to be somewhere between 30 and 50 years old, and was dressed in flying coveralls and wearing an old-fashioned leather helmet.

"Full name is Florence Constantine Lowe. I reckon you kids must be Team Possible, right?" Smiling, she extended a hand in greeting, which Kim shook in sheer reflex.

"Yes, Miss Lowe. I'm Kim Possible, this is my partner, Ron Stoppable . . . "

"And this little guy must be Rufus." Flo Lowe finished Kim's sentence in a way that reminded Kim of her two younger brothers.

"That's right, Ma'am," Ron stammered. "He's a naked mole rat."

"I've heard about all three of you." The lady pilot winked at Rufus as she shook Ron's hand. "But don't call me 'Miss Lowe.' I'm just plain 'Flo' to my friends, so you can call me that, too. All right?"

Kim and Ron nodded, while Rufus made a 'thumbs up' gesture and chirped, "Okay!"

"Are these all your bags?" Flo gestured at the pair of two-wheeled carry-on bags that stood beside the couch. Kim assured the lady pilot that their backpacks and the two bags were all that they had brought.

"Okay, the ship is parked just outside on the apron. Let's get your gear loaded and be on our way." Flo grabbed both bags' handles and started walking briskly down the corridor, with the two teens close behind. They quickly came to the exit, and followed Florence outside and on to the parking area in front of the air service building.

Kim and Ron had ridden in many different types of airplanes, from a Douglas DC-3 to a Global Justice hoverjet that could take off and land vertically, but the plane they saw waiting for them was definitely different. It was a biplane, with two wings, an upper and a lower, but the lower wing was closer to the nose than the upper wing. It looked sleek and speedy, had an enclosed cabin and seemed to have retractable landing gear, but as they walked up to the plane Ron began to wonder just how old it was.

They placed their bags in the luggage compartment and climbed in. The cabin was clean and comfortable, and looked like the inside of a luxury automobile from before World War Two. Kim sat in the copilot's seat while Ron and Rufus sat behind her. As Flo checked their seatbelts, Kim asked her about the plane.

"Uh, Flo, this plane looks nice, but aren't the wings sort of . . . different?"

"Never seen one like it before, eh?" Kim, Ron and Rufus all shook their heads.

"Well, this is a Beechcraft D17S, just about the classiest private plane that got built in the 1930s. The way the wings are set is called 'negative stagger.' If the upper wing was further forward than the lower wing, it would be called 'positive stagger.'"

Flo paused to adjust a control, and then continued. "Back in 1933 an airshow announcer got carried away at the sight of one of the first Model 17s in flight and he shouted, 'Just look at that negative-staggerwing go!'" Flo chuckled. "Ever since the Beech 17 has been known as a 'Staggerwing.'"

"It looks . . . cool," Ron observed, as he looked around the cabin. Rufus had climbed to Ron's left shoulder and gazed around with a curious expression. Kim noticed that the windows in the two side doors seemed to be worked by handcranks, the same way car windows used to be.

Flo quickly finished the pre-flight checklist. Then she checked the fuel pump, set the throttle, cranked down the left side window, leaned out and in a Marine Corps drill sergeant voice, shouted, "CLEAR PROP!"

Rufus gave a squeak and dove back into Ron's pocket as the starter cranked the engine and it burst into life. After final checks and getting clearance from ground control, Flo released the brakes and taxied the plane along the apron to the end of the runway.

"Bowman Tower, Staggerwing 938 ready for take-off on runway 32, VFR northwest." As Flo spoke into the microphone, Kim slipped on the spare headset just in time to hear the control tower's reply.

"_Nine three eight, you are cleared for take-off. Have a good flight_."

"Cleared for takeoff, runway 32, Staggerwing 938. Thank you." After her acknowledgment of the tower's instructions, the lady pilot opened the throttle and the plane rolled forward onto the runway, turned to the right, and paused briefly. Then the brakes came off, the engine roared up to full power, and the Staggerwing began its roll. In less than a minute they were off, and climbing smoothly.

Heading north at first they crossed the Ohio River and then turned toward the west. After several minutes Flo nodded, and spoke directly to Kim and Ron again.

"We're at five thousand feet, doing 180 miles an hour, and should reach the field in about thirty minutes. Meanwhile, how do you like this bird?"

"This is a really smooth-riding plane," Kim replied, over the muted rumble of the engine. "Pretty quiet, too."

"Back in the 30s the Staggerwing was state-of-the-art," Flo commented. "They were used for small-service airline routes, and big businesses bought them as company aircraft. A millionaire or movie star who drove a Duesenberg SJ would fly his own Staggerwing. They were even flown in air races."

"Air racing? In this?" Kim politely tried to keep the disbelief out of her voice.

"That's right. In the 1936 National Air Races, two lady pilots — Louise Thaden and Blanche Noyes — flew a stock model 17 in the Bendix trans-continental air race from New York to Los Angeles. What's more, they won the race!" Flo glanced at Kim and winked. "With a Staggerwing, Miss Possible, they were just like you. They could do anything."

After half an hour Flo announced that they would be landing soon. Both Kim and Ron looked down for an airfield, but the land ahead and below the plane was now a forest. Finally, Kim pointed to a small patch of open ground.

"Is that where we're going to land, Flo?"

"That's right. Don't let the view from here fool you, it's bigger than it looks," she replied, and turned the plane into a descending curve. Below them, Kim and Ron saw the open patch grow until it was a wide, straight clearing, with buildings along one side. The Staggerwing flew along the line of the landing strip, turned to the left, came back, and turned again, descending to a gentle touch-down. Stopping well short of the end of the landing strip, Flo turned the plane's nose back toward the buildings, which Kim now saw were small airplane hangars. Flo opened the throttle, and the Beechcraft taxied up to one of the hangars. After running through a final checklist, Flo shut down the engine, and then turned to her passengers.

"Here we are, folks. Welcome to Yesterday's Airport, home of the Old Time Aviators."

After getting out of the Beechcraft, Flo showed Kim and Ron where they could put their bags. This was the office of the gift shop, which was a long building with a roof and sides of corrugated metal. A sign above the door said 'Tin Goose Gift Shop.' Ron stopped to stare at the sign, and then called Kim's attention to it.

Rufus gave a squeak of surprise when he saw the picture on the sign. It showed a goose in flight, but while the head, neck, wings, feet and tail looked normal, the body of the bird was a large tin can. Inside the shop Kim immediately spotted a small metal model of the same sort of 'bird' hanging from the ceiling, with a price tag dangling from the neck.

"Your gear will be safe in the office," Flo remarked. "The boys are practicing formation flying, but I think they'll be landing in a few minutes. Let's go outside and see."

Kim and Ron looked over the airfield, noticing a number of people who were walking around and looking at the planes in the hangars. Then they heard the growl of several airplane engines. Looking up they saw five biplanes flying in formation over the field. After circling the area the planes shifted to a 'line astern' formation and came over the field again. The first plane pulled up and turned to the left, and each of the following biplanes did the same.

"Pretty slick!" Ron remarked. "Sort of like the Thunderbirds, but slower."

One after the other the planes came in to land, and taxied up to where Kim, Ron and Rufus stood with Flo.

"What sort of planes are these, Miss Lowe?" Ron asked, in a puzzled tone. "They look kinda like they belong in World War One."

"Now, I told you, Ronald, just call me 'Flo.' The only folks who have to call me 'Miss Lowe' are the ones I don't like." She winked at Rufus, who grinned in return. "But, to answer your question, all of these are designs that date from 1928 to 1935. Do you kids know much about 1930s airplanes?"

"Well, I've seen _Porco Rosso_ three times, and watched every episode of _TaleSpin_!" Ron remarked. Rufus slapped his forehead and groaned, while Kim rolled her eyes.

However, Flo just nodded. "That film was accurate in showing real airplanes of the period, and the TV series was good, too. But you might need a few added facts." She began pointing at each of the taxiing planes in succession as they pulled up to the flight line. The first had a colorful paint scheme of light yellow, white and red, while the second was all red, with black trim, and the third was dark blue over yellow.

"That first one is a Stampe SV-4, from Belgium," Flo explained. "The next one's a Waco UPF, and that third one's a British de Havilland 'Gypsy Moth.'"

The fourth plane was painted olive green, with red stars on the wingtips, tailfin and fuselage. "Is that a Russian plane, Flo?" Kim asked.

"Yep. It's a Polikarpov Po-2. More of them were built than any other airplane in history."

"More than the P-51 or the Messerschmitt 109?"

"Oh, way more, Ronald," Flo assured him. "Some put the total production as high as forty thousand machines." Ron's eyebrows went up in surprise.

A silver biplane with a gray engine cowling and trim, and a broad horizontal black-white-red stripe on the tailfin, was the last to taxi to a stop. Flo explained that this was a German Bücker 'Jungman.' After the engines had stopped a pilot got out of each plane, and came over to where Flo and Team Possible stood. As soon as all five were there, Flo began introductions.

"Here they are, boys: Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, and the little fellow is Rufus. Kim, Ron, Rufus, these are the fellows who own and run this place: Clyde Vernon, Walt Herschel, Frank Gifford, Joe Williams and Tom Murdoch." There was a general shaking of hands and exchange of 'how-dos.' The five men were all at least twice as old as Kim and Ron, but it was hard to estimate their ages. Anywhere from 35 to 60 might have been right. Each one was lean, with a well-tanned face that gave the appearance of having faced into a lot of airstreams.

"Now that we're here, Mister Herschel," Kim asked, "how can we help you?"

"Well, you see, Miss Possible, we founded this place ten years ago to preserve old-time aviation, and let people see what it was like when flying was fun," Walt explained. "Each weekend we do things that were done at small airshows in the 1930s, like wing-walking and crazy flying, demonstrate our planes and give people a fun weekend."

"That sounds great!" Ron said enthusiastically.

"We also give people rides, just like the old barnstormers did," Frank Gifford remarked. "We've got one plane here that was built for just that purpose, back in '26."

"Up to this summer things have been fair dinkum all around, but the past six weeks or so, we've been havin' odd kinds of trouble," Joe Williams explained. "Spark plugs missing from a couple of engines, the ailerons reversed on a plane, and other stuff that shouldn't be happening!"

"We keep the hangars locked up at night with alarms set, and we've been taking turns sleeping in the gift shop so we can be right here if something bad happens," Herschel remarked. "But so far, we haven't caught anybody messing around with the planes."

"It started with little things," Tom Murdoch added, with a slightly British accent. "But lately they're getting more serious. A major accident could send our insurance rates up and put us out of business." He glanced around the airfield with a sad expression. "We'd all hate that, Miss Possible."

"That's why I suggested we send for you," Flo told Kim and Ron. "We need some troubleshooters who can help us stay in the air."

"So, you keep having problems, it looks as if somebody is sabotaging your planes, but you don't know who could be doing it?" Kim asked, thoughtfully.

Walter glanced at the others and then looked back at Kim, Ron and Rufus. "Well . . . we have a hunch we know what might be causing the trouble, but it's rather odd."

"Hey, check our name, folks," said Ron, "we're Team Possible. We can handle anything." Rufus nodded in agreement and trilled, "Uh-huh!"

"Tell 'em, Walt," Flo urged. "They've gotta know eventually."

"All right." He looked Kim straight in the eye as he spoke. "The fact is, Miss Possible, we think that it may be . . . gremlins."

Kim raised an eyebrow, and Rufus gave a squeak of surprise.

"Ah . . . gremlins? You mean, little guys that look cute, but turn evil if they get wet?" Ron asked, cautiously.

"No, not like those things in that movie," Tom Murdoch explained. "These gremlins are little chaps who bothered pilots during the Second World War."

"There were a lot of stories floating around about gremlins, in every ready room and mess hall where you could find pilots," Walt added.

"And in any case, _something_ has been making things go haywire for the past few weeks," said Joe Williams. "We've got to find out who — or what — is doin' it, and then chase the galah all the way past the Black Stump!"

Tom grinned at Joe, and then turned to Kim and Ron. "Joe was born in Australia, and he still uses Aussie English now and then."

"An' Tom here used to be a Pommy," Joe added, with a smile. "That's an Englishman," he explained, in a confidential tone.

Kim frowned thoughtfully for a moment, then pulled out the Kimunicator and punched the call button. When Wade's image appeared on the screen, she said, "Wade, I've got a research job for you." Kim hesitated a moment before she went on, "And it's a bit strange . . . even for us!"

**[End of Part One]**


	2. Chapter 2

**Airplanes, Spandules and Widgets, Oh, My! - Part Two**

While Wade was digging up data on World War Two gremlins, Walt and Flo showed Kim and Ron around Yesterday's Airport. Each hangar had the name of an airplane company above the main doors, such as Beechcraft, de Havilland and Waco. The third one had the name 'New Standard' on it, and a rather large biplane was parked just outside the broad, open doors. As Walt led them into the back of the building, they could hear metallic sounds of someone working on an airplane engine, and then, someone singing.

"Lucky Lindy! Flies all alone,

In a little plane all his own,

Lucky Lindy shows them the way

And he's the hero of the day."

"Hey, Albert! Take break and meet our guests," Flo called. A figure straightened up from the engine he was working on, and turned around.

"Oh? Who is it, Flo?"

"Albert, this is Team Possible," Flo explained. "They're going to help us find out who's been fouling things up around here. Kim, Ron, Rufus: This is Albert Sydney, our A & E mechanic. He keeps the old birds around here in flying shape." She grinned at Walt Herschel and added, "That is, he keeps the airplanes flying."

"Okay, let's say Kim doesn't know what an 'A and E Mechanic' is," said Ron. Kim frowned at her BFBF and nudged him with an elbow.

"It means 'airframe and engine mechanic,' Miss Possible," said Albert, as he shook Kim's hand. "I can service, overhaul and repair any of these aircraft, along with their powerplants, and keep them in good shape, too."

Kim noted that Albert was only slightly taller than Ron, with a solid frame and muscular arms. However, his handshake was not crushing, just firm and polite.

"I should warn you folks that Albert here is an expert on three things: airplanes of the 1930s, their engines, and movies of the 1930s about flying, pirates or sailing ships," Walt remarked. "Don't argue those subjects with him unless you're absolutely sure of what you say, 'cause he knows them inside and out." He was grinning as he spoke, and both Flo and Albert matched Walt's expression.

Flo added that as a test of his skill, a month ago Albert had taken a nine-cylinder radial engine apart blindfolded, and then reassembled it.

Ron was obviously impressed. "Wow! Did the engine run okay after that?"

"What do you think was pulling the Beechcraft I flew you here in?" Flo answered.

Kim decided that it was time to get back to the basics of the mission, so she took out the Kimunicator and switched on the 'notebook' function. "Can you tell us something about the things that have been going wrong with the airplanes, please?" she asked, slipping into her 'Mission Mode' voice and manner.

Albert could, and he did. One morning the tires on six of the planes were found totally flat. The tires had not been punctured, but all the air had been let out of them. A few days later all the spark plugs in the engines of three planes had been loosened to the point where they were ready to fall out. And two days ago the airplane in front of this hangar had reversed controls when it was about to be taken on a test flight.

"That means that when you moved the controls to make the ship roll to the right, she'd roll to the left instead," Flo explained.

"The elevator was reversed, too, so if you tried to climb, you'd go into a dive, and probably crash," Walt added.

"Have any planes actually crashed?" Kim asked.

"Not so far. After the first two or three pieces of sabotage we've checked everything before we fly any plane. Sometimes nothing is wrong, and sometimes there are two or three things wrong with the same ship."

"Like what?" Ron asked.

"The Polikarpov had a flat tire last week, and when I gave the ship a general checking I found the fuel line had been filed thin in one place as well. She might have taken off, but the engine would have quit during flight, or caught fire." Albert frowned. "Somebody had damaged that line deliberately!" His voice held the honest outrage of a good mechanic at someone's abuse of an engine.

"Funny that somebody flattened the tire. You'd think they'd do that on some other plane, so the first one could take off and then have trouble." Kim was making notes in the Kimunicator's notebook section as she spoke.

"Maybe there's two gremlins doing things, and they don't co-operate," Ron remarked. Kim was about to comment on this when the Kimunicator's message signal beeped. Kim clicked on the telescreen and said, "Go, Wade!"

"Hi, Kim! I've found a couple of books about gremlins, and I can download them to you. There's a fair number of newspaper and magazine stories about World War Two gremlins from the early 1940s, but they don't really connect with each other. Each person writing about them seems to mention a different kind of gremlin."

"Can you give us an example?" Kim asked. In the screen, Wade picked up his ever-present cola, took a sip, and then nodded.

"Sure! One book about Royal Air Force night fighters mentions 'Fore-and-aft Gremlins.' These are little guys who run back and forth inside the planes when they're flying, doing egg-and-spoon races with solid lead eggs."

Rufus gave an inquisitive squeak, and Ron leaned over to speak directly into the Kimunicator.

"Ah, what's an 'egg-and-spoon race,' Wade?"

"You hold a fresh egg on a teaspoon and run a distance, then run back. The first person to get back to the finish without dropping the egg wins," Wade explained. "And if you do this inside an airplane with solid lead 'eggs,' it upsets the plane's fore-and-aft balance."

"Well . . . download those two books and the articles you've found so far," said Kim. "I'll go over them and see if it gives us any clues."

Leaving the hangar Kim and Ron walked around the other buildings with Flo Lowe for a time. There were a number of adults and a few children visiting the airport, and they saw Tom Murdoch giving a group a tour. He was describing the different airplanes and what they had been used for in the past. As the tour group moved toward the next hangar, Flo excused herself and hurried to where a lean, pale-faced man was opening a gate in the fench that ran along the edge of the landing ground.

"Hold on, mister, you mustn't go out on the field," she called. The man stopped and turned around.

"Flying is still going on," Flo explained, "and you don't want to get a propeller haircut. Believe me, you don't."

"Oh. Yes," said the man. "Excuse me." He glanced at Kim and Ron as they came up, and then he silently walked away toward the gift shop. Kim mentally noted that the man was between thirty and forty years old, with a rather plain face and brown hair.

Flo sighed. "Most of the people who come here know something about planes, so they take care of themselves." She shook her head slowly. "But we have to watch for the careless ones, just in case."

"Has anybody ever been hit by a taxiing plane?" Kim asked. Flo replied that in the ten years that Yesterday's Airport had been operating, nobody had been seriously hurt there.

"And that's the way we want to keep it," she firmly added. "But that fellow should know better by now. I've seen him here a few times already, this summer."

Later, after looking over all the hangars, workshops, gift shop and office, and enjoying a dinner provided by the airport's owners, Kim and Ron settled down in the office behind the gift shop. Walt and Flo had provided cots, pillows and blankets, so they could stay on the field during the night, in case the alarms went off. Kim reviewed her notes on the description of the sabotage, Ron looked around the shop at the books, souvenirs and DVDs of old airplanes in flight, and Rufus set out to check around the building for anyplace somebody his size could get in. Once she had gone over all her notes and checked the security system plan a second time, Kim called up Wade on the Kimunicator.

"Oh, hi, Kim! I was just about to call you. I finished scanning the data you sent and checked on the airport alarm system."

"Find anything?" Kim asked.

"Not really. That's a legitimate security system, and pretty tough to bust into without leaving traces . . . and I didn't find any traces."

"I'll hook the Kimunicator onto the system, so you'll know if anything goes off tonight," Kim remarked. "I've been looking at the stuff you downloaded about gremlins, and those two books suggest to me that gremlins aren't really bad characters, unless they get irritated."

"That's the way I see it, too," Wade replied. "But we don't know how accurate any of that stuff is . . . or if gremlins really exist at all."

"Yeah. Well, I'll call you in the morning, or sooner, if something turns up. Good night, Wade."

"Good night, Kim." The screen went dark. A moment later Ron walked into the office, holding a poster.

"Hey, Kim, look at this!" Ron held up the poster. "They've got a rack full of 'em for sale."

The poster showed a very heroic-looking aviator with blond hair and brown eyes, in a leather flying helmet, scarf, goggles and flying jacket, standing in front of an impressive biplane. At the top of the poster were the words, 'Real Pilots' and the words 'Fly Biplanes!' were at the bottom.

"Next Halloween, KP, I think I'll dress up as an old-time flying ace."

Kim smiled. "As The Red Baron? Or . . . Snoopy?"

"Come on, Kim! I'd make a great-looking pilot," Ron protested.

"So long as a gremlin didn't sabotage your plane," she replied, with a grin. Then Kim went back into 'Mission Mode.' "Anyway, scan through this stuff Wade found about gremlins, and see if you get any ideas."

With a sigh Ron took the Kimunicator, called up the appropriate file, and began scanning. After a time he looked up.

"Did you see this about lady pilots using a picture of a lady gremlin as their insignia during World War Two, Kim?"

"Yeah. There's a good picture of a fifinella in the second book Wade downloaded," she replied.

"I noticed."

Kim grinned. "Maybe I should dress up as one for Halloween next year."

Ron frowned as he checked the image on the Kimunicator screen again. "But how would you get a set of horns like this fuffanilla has got, KP?"

"It's 'fifinella,' Ron!"

"Fifinellas, gremlins, widgets, spandules . . . I wonder if DNAmy has been up to something?"

Kim considered the matter before she answered Ron's question.

"DNAmy usually combines two creatures into one, like that bear & penguin thing, remember? Tiny little people just isn't her style."

Ron nodded. That bearguin had been _really_ strange.

Rufus had made a careful scan of the floor and walls of the small office, and satisfied himself that there were no hidden doors for unwelcome visitors. The naked mole rat was serious about such things, for he considered it his duty to see to the safety of his humans. He was as much a part of Team Possible as Kim and Ron were! And while the two teens might not openly say it, they knew that in a tight spot Rufus would always be there, ready to do his bit. It might be pulling the plug of one of Dr. Drakken's evil machines out of the wall socket or jumping on the right control button to release Kim and Ron from a trap, but whatever it was, Rufus was determined to always be there when he was needed.

In order to fulfill this duty, Rufus always examined any location where they had to stay for a while. How could someone get in? How could Team Possible get out, if necessary? The little mole rat checked every conceivable thing in the area, as well as anything that _wasn't_ conceivable, just to be on the safe side. And this office was definitely safe. There wasn't a single sign of a mousehole or a crack that could let in something unpleasant.

Of course that didn't mean Rufus could relax. Once he was certain the office was safe he slipped into the gift shop itself and made another quick check around the room. All was well, so he went back into the office and found a spot on a shelf that would let him keep an eye on the door without being seen himself. Then he settled down to listen to his humans discussing the mission.

"Ron, do you notice anything strange about the problems these people have been having?"

"What do you mean, KP?" Ron replied. "Nothing's been blown up, set on fire or smashed, but all this sabotage must be a pain in the neck for them."

Kim frowned as she replied. "It looks to me as if somebody is doing something to an airplane that could cause it to crash, and then something else, that would keep the plane from flying at all."

Ron caught on at once. "That plane with the flat tire and the filed fuel line, you mean?"

"That's right. One or the other would make sense, but doing both . . . well, that doesn't."

Rufus nodded. He'd done some sabotage for Kim and Ron a number of times, and he knew that it usually took only one thing being done, in the right place, to do the job. There was definitely something peculiar going on at this airport.

"Well, if anything happens tonight the local alarm system will let us know." Kim sighed. "We'd both better get some sleep while we can, just in case it goes off at three AM."

Ron agreed, and promptly stretched out on one of the two cots in the office. After turning out the lights, Kim slipped under a blanket on the other cot, and in a short time only Kim's soft breathing and Ron's gentle snores broke the silence.

Rufus snapped to the alert when he heard it — a faint, almost inaudible squeak of sound, as if a very, very small set of hinges, in need of oil, had turned. The office remained the same, both Kim and Ron's breathing sounded normal, but Rufus didn't dismiss what he had heard. His eyes were used to very dim light, and without making a sound himself, he scanned the floor and walls for anything that shouldn't be there.

There! Something no bigger than himself was moving along the baseboard, toward the office door. Rufus slipped to the edge of the shelf, watching carefully. Whatever that was crossed the doorway, went along the next baseboard, and stopped in the corner. Wake up Kim and Ron? Not yet. Whatever that was would vanish the moment either human moved, just the way Rufus himself could go to ground, of that he was sure. The baseboards were solid, he'd checked on that! So, how did this . . . whatever . . . get in?

There was another faint sound. Not a squeak, but just the hint of wood rubbing on wood. Then the thing vanished, and the rubbing sound came again. A trapdoor in the floor? Rufus nodded. This needed looking into, quickly. But waking Kim or Ron and getting them to understand would take a few minutes; he'd have to follow this up . . . or down . . . himself. He scurried down the wall and across the floor to the corner, checking closely for tracks left by the intruder, but finding none.

The floorboards seemed to be solid but Rufus noticed that the floorboard along the baseboard ended about three inches from the crosswall, and another floorboard began. If that piece of wood was on hinges . . . but it refused to come up. There were no seams or cracks to get his claws into, and he couldn't lift the little piece. But maybe it folded down, instead of up? Rufus immediately gave a jump, and came down on the small piece. Nobody was awake to see it, but the floorboard opened and Rufus dropped out of sight so quickly he didn't have time to squeak!

**[End of Part Two]**

Historical notes for those who might be interested:

Albert is singing the song "Lucky Lindy," which was written by L. W. Gilbert and published in 1927, soon after Charles A. Lindebergh made the first non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to Paris.

The two books about gremlins that Wade found really exist. They are: _The Gremlins of Lieut. Oggins_, by Irwin Shapiro, and _The Gremlins; A Royal Air Force Story_, by Flight Lieutenant Roald Dahl, RAF. (Yes, the same man who wrote _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_.) Dahl's book was reprinted in 2006, but I believe Shapiro's book has been out of print since about 1943.

During World War Two a group of women pilots was organized to fly airplanes from factories to bases around the U. S., and to do things like test-fly the planes as they came off the assembly lines. These were the Women's Army Service Pilots (WASPs) and the Walt Disney studio designed a special insignia for them. A large bronze duplicate of the fifinella insignia is on display in Sweetwater, Texas, where the WASPs had their headquarters.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Disclaimer:** All characters, locations, events and situations in this story that are borrowed from the _Kim Possible_ TV series are the property of the Disney company. All aircraft mentioned in this story are the creations of their designers. The plot and other characters are the product of my brain and thus are my responsibility.

**Airplanes, Spandules and Widgets, Oh, My! - Part Three**

When the Kimunicator sounded its four-tone call, Kim was awake in an instant. She scooped up the device, pushed the 'answer' button and whispered, "Go, Wade!"

In the screen Wade looked as if he had just woke up. Stifling a yawn he said, "I've had something . . . screwy . . . on the airport 's alarm system, Kim."

"Is somebody breaking in?" Kim said, in her 'Mission Mode' voice, as she poked Ron awake.

"Well, no . . . but the alarm system in Hangar Number Four shut off and came on again in a split second. I'd call it a glitch in the power supply, but everything else is still okay."

"Hangar Number Four? Okay, we're on it. Ron! Mission time, get up!" Kim was beside the door and ready to go as Ron bounced up from his cot and joined her. Even in his sleep Ron would react to Kim's call to action.

Kim and Ron slipped out of the Gift Shop office and moved silently toward the hangar in question. There were no lights inside the building, but as they came close to the side door for people, Kim saw that it was . . . very slightly . . . ajar. She tapped the 'hush' button on the Kimunicator, so that anything she said and Wade's replies would be too quiet for anyone else to hear.

"Wade, I think somebody's inside. Can you trigger the alarm and turn on the lights in this hangar for us?"

In the screen Wade frowned in concentration and tapped his keyboard for a full thirty seconds. Then he looked up. "All set, Kim; just say 'when.'"

Kim glanced at Ron, made sure he understood what was going to happen, then looked back at the Kimunicator screen. "Hit it, Wade!"

The lights in the hangar came on and an old-style air-raid siren burst into life outside the building. Ron gave a startled yelp as they did, and then followed Kim into the hangar at a run. They immediately spotted a figure dressed in an all-black outfit and holding a small knife beside the Polikarpov, one of the four biplanes in the hangar.

"Drop the knife and step away from the airplane!" Kim's voice was almost drowned in the alarm's sound, but the figure got the message. It dropped the knife, spun around and dove under the German plane. Something hit the hangar floor as the figure turned, and a cloud of white smoke erupted, hiding the intruder and quickly filling the hangar.

"Ron, he's heading for the door!"

"I'll get 'em, KP! OW!" Lunging after the figure, Ron tripped over a tool trolley, scattering wrenches, sparkplugs and bundles of wiring in all directions. The small door slammed shut behind the fleeing figure a moment later.

Kim was at the door two seconds after it closed, and found it was locked! Realizing that the intruder would be long gone by the time she got out, she quickly picked the lock and went outside anyway. There was nothing to be seen of the black-clad figure, even though all the outside lights were now on, and the siren had stopped.

The cel-phone side of the Kimunicator rang. When Kim answered it, Tom Murdoch's voice said, "Miss Possible, I just got a flash that the alarm has gone off! Are you all right?" When Kim assured him that she and Ron were fine, Tom went on, "What about the aircraft?"

"Somebody was in Hangar Number Four, and I think they damaged the Russian plane," Kim reported. She explained what they had seen and done, concluding, "You'd better check everything in this hangar in the morning."

"Thanks, we will. But Albert and I will be right over, just the same." Tom hung up, and Kim turned to her partner.

"Come on, Ron, we'd better do a sweep of this hangar to see if that intruder left anything behind." She led the way back into the hangar and opened the main doors to let the smoke out.

"You mean, like a bomb, KP?"

"Or a clue." Kim frowned. "I didn't expect to meet a ninja here in Indiana!"

"You don't suppose Monkey Fist is behind this, do you?"

At Ron's question Kim shook her head. "Whoever that was, he wasn't as big as Monkey Fist, and not small enough to be one of his monkey ninjas."

"Yeah . . . about the right size for one of those turtle-ninja guys, though."

Kim rolled her eyes. "Focus, Ron!"

"Sloppy work for a ninja, anyway," Ron went on calmly, "leaving the door open like that . . . careless, eh, Rufus?"

When he got no reply to his question, Ron checked the pocket his mole rat friend / pet rode in, and found it was empty.

"KP, Rufus is missing!"

Kim paused in her scanning of the hangar floor, ceiling and walls and turned toward Ron. "Are you sure he came with us when we left the Gift Shop?"

"Ah . . . no." Ron considered the matter. "The last time I saw him was just before we turned in, last night."

"Well, he probably didn't wake up in time to get in your pocket before we started out. He must still be in the Gift Shop."

"Oh! Yeah, that's right." Ron's concern for Rufus faded away, but if he had known just where the mole rat was at that moment, the reading on his 'worry-meter' would have buried the needle.

* * *

As Rufus dropped through the floor he relaxed for the landing, which came almost immediately. Being a mole rat, Rufus had excellent night vision, while his senses of smell, hearing and touch drank in information from his surroundings that would have been missed by the sharpest human. Even in total darkness he quickly determined that he had fallen about a foot, and was now at the bottom of a square, vertical shaft. The floor was smooth wood, and a set of rungs were in one side of the shaft. Climbing these he discovered that the piece of floorboard he had fallen through was mounted on a spring-loaded hinge, and had a handle on the underside.

Working with Kim and Ron for several years, Rufus had become adept at spotting oddities and details in his surroundings. He knew that mouseholes did not have spring-loaded trapdoors and rungs for climbing. This hole was built for creatures like very, very small humans. A quick check turned up an opening in the shaft side opposite the rungs, and there was a very faint sound coming from it. Whatever had moved across the floor had come down this shaft and gone through this opening. He promptly started down what proved to be a low, narrow tunnel, to see where it went and to seek whatever it was that had gone through it.

A few steps down the tunnel was a cloth curtain completely across the opening. It was slit down the middle, so Rufus pushed through it, to find a second curtain a few steps further on. Going through this second curtain Rufus found that the tunnel was lit by what looked like a string of miniature white Christmas tree lights along the top of the tunnel. Ahead the tunnel was empty, but the sounds he had heard before still came from ahead, and they were now louder. It sounded as if several mole rats were squeaking at each other . . . but not quite.

The tunnel curved to one side, and as Rufus crept cautiously around the curve he saw the back and tail of what was clearly a common rat. Ordinarily he had little contact with such creatures, and had found them to be nasty, brutish and hungry. You just _couldn't_ reason with them! This one seemed to be threatening something on the far side of a small room that the tunnel led into. There was a short piece of a metal rod lying just inside the chamber, so Rufus

picked it up, hefted this improvised quarterstaff, and then stood out to do battle, like Robin Hood facing up to Little John across the log over the creek.

The sudden swat to its hindquarters drew the rat's attention away from what was ahead of it, and it spun around to face Rufus. He swung the rod like a baseball bat and laid it alongside the rat's head as it turned, which gave the rat a vacant expression, followed by a sudden collapse. With the big rodent down, Rufus looked around its bulk to see just what it was the rat had been after and immediately gave a squeak of surprise.

* * *

By the time Tom Murdoch and Albert Sydney arrived, Kim and Ron had carefully checked the hangar and the four planes in it. As soon as Tom and Albert came in, they were shown the search results. The wing fabric on the German plane had been slashed in two places, and the elevator control wires were partly cut through. The Belgian plane was damaged in a similar manner. Mr. Murdoch looked mad enough to chew nails, and Albert was only slightly less angry. After a few minutes the mechanic visibly gained control of his temper and spoke to the others.

"Well, I can replace the control wires in the morning, but there isn't enough time for the fabric to be patched, doped and painted to have them ready for the Saturday show." Albert sighed. "When I get my hands on the guy who's doing this . . . "

"Got a good plan ready, have you?" Ron asked.

Albert scowled, and with a nasal tone in his voice, growled, "Mister Christian! Keelhaul this man!"

Both Ron and Kim were startled, but then, in a perfectly normal voice, Albert added, "Not you, Ron. That was Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh, in _Mutiny on the Bounty_."

Tom had a wry grin on his face. "I think Walt told you about Albert's interest in movies of the 1930s? He'll quote something appropriate at the drop of a spark plug." Then he looked back at the two damaged airplanes and shook his head.

"Albert, I almost agree with you. We've got to find out who's doing this stuff, and see that they're locked up."

"I'm sorry we didn't catch whoever it was," Kim began, but Tom shook his head and interrupted her. "No, no, Miss Possible, you caught him in the act and chased him off. That's more than any of us have been able to do in a month!" He gave a sigh. "Let's lock up the hangar, reset the alarms, and get back to our beds. Tomorrow being Friday, it's going to be busy around here, what with the shows coming up on Saturday and Sunday."

* * *

Back in the Gift Shop, Ron tried to find Rufus, but after five minutes of an increasingly frantic search, he had to conclude that his little mole rat friend was nowhere to be found.

"It's not like him, Kim! Rufus must be in trouble somewhere, or he'd be back here by now."

"You've said that three times already, Ron, but we don't know where to look for him." Kim mentally regretted not asking Wade to fit Rufus with a microchip under his skin so he could be tracked, the way Wade had chipped Ron. _I wonder if _I've_ been microchipped, too? _she mused briefly, as she carefully checked the baseboards. Kim was about ready to admit there was no sign of where Rufus could be, when she heard Ron speak in a very strange tone of voice.

"Uh . . . Kim . . . could you look over here, and tell me if I really see what I think I see?"

Kim rose to her feet, turned around, and stared at the spot on the desk that Ron was looking at. Three small figures stood there. The middle one was clearly Rufus, but on either side of the mole rat was a slightly taller, much more human-looking figure. They matched the pictures in one of the books Wade had downloaded for them to study, and Kim's mind calmly told her that, no matter how unlikely it might be, she was looking at . . . a pair of gremlins!

**[End of Part Three]**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Disclaimer: **All characters, locations, events and situations in this story that are borrowed from the _Kim Possible _TV series are the property of the Disney company. All aircraft mentioned in this story are the creations of their designers. The plot and other characters are the product of my brain and thus are my responsibility.

**Airplanes, Spandules and Widgets, Oh, My! - Part Four**

Kim moved across the room and knelt beside Ron so she could look at Rufus and the two . . . gremlins . . . more closely. The one she gazed at was wearing an orange coverall of some sort, dark leather boots, and heavy, white gloves. Its head was covered by a cloth helmet through which two small, white, slightly curved horns protruded. A large set of goggles covered the upper face and eyes, but the somewhat bulbous nose — and a white mustache below it — were visible.

"Ah . . . Kim . . . I'm looking at two gremlins, right?" Ron's voice was a mixture of uncertainty and bewilderment.

"Actually, lad, yer lookin' at a Gremlin and a Fifinella!"

Kim realized that the five-inch-high figure in front of her was the one who had spoken. She glanced to her left and noticed that the second figure was both slim and feminine. It — no, _she_, Kim corrected herself — wore a blue helmet and a long-sleeved pink bodice that flared out into a brief skirt. Blue tights that went down to white leather boots, and elbow-length black gloves completed the ensemble. It all added up to a female gremlin. A fifinella.

"I'm Gus, an' this is Meg," said the gremlin. "You're called Kim, an' your friend's called Ron, right?"

"Yes," Kim nodded. "How did you know that?"

"We've been watching you an' the other Big Folks all day," Gus replied. He glanced at Rufus, who wore a very smug expression. "Yer friend here did us a favor, an' you drove off that nitwit who keeps damaging the planes, so we decided to come out an' talk."

"Rufus? You found these gremlins?" Ron's question got a prompt reply from his little friend who nodded and answered, "Yup!"

"He helped drive off a rat that was threatening the Widgets," the fifinella explained. Her voice was more musical than that of Gus. His voice had a definite masculine growl. Looking closer at the pair, Kim saw that Meg's horns were gold-colored and tightly curled instead of straight and slightly curved like the one's that poked through Gus's helmet. She also realized that there was a small derby hat spiked on Gus's right horn.

_Now, how did I miss that hat?_ Kim briefly wondered, before her train of thought was interrupted.

"Widgets?" Ron asked. "What are widgets, Kim?"

"Remember those books, Ron? Widgets are very young gremlins," Kim remarked absently. She looked closely at Gus, and spoke directly to him.

"You said we drove off the person who's damaging these airplanes. Does that mean that you aren't doing anything to them?"

"Not exactly," said Meg, and Gus began to explain.

The gremlins had been living in this area ever since the airfield was opened. They liked to be around airplanes, and the people who flew them were what Gus called "Our kind of Big Folks." But at no time had any of the gremlins done anything to harm the airplanes, until about two months ago. At that time they had spotted a black-clad figure slipping onto the airfield at night, and going over the middle of the runway with some sort of device. After several nights he (or she) had stopped coming, but a week later the stranger came back and deliberately damaged three of the airplanes.

"Now, all the damage was inside the planes, and might not get noticed before a pilot took off," Gus explained. "But once he was in the air it could cause a fire or a crash." The gremlin scowled in annoyance. "We had to do something to keep those planes on the ground, so we did some obvious damage to them. Things that would be spotted during the pre-flight check."

"We figured that if the pilot saw a hole in the wing fabric or a flat tire, he'd check the plane over for anything else that might need fixing, and find the sabotage when he did," Meg remarked. "It worked, too."

"But we can't track that rascal back to where he's comin' from!" Gus grumbled.

The gremlins had spotted the intruder that night, and managed to cause a 'blip' in the alarm system to wake up Kim and Ron. But before this happened, Rufus had found a gremlin tunnel under the building and followed it to a widget nest. He arrived moments after a rat had gotten in, and helped protect the young gremlins by knocking the rat silly.

"Way to go, Rufus! I'll get you a grande-sized naco the first chance I have," Ron promised.

"He's quite a hero," Meg remarked, and planted a delicate kiss on the mole rat's cheek. Rufus managed to blush, which isn't easy for someone whose primary skin color is already pink.

Gus explained that after Rufus stopped the rat, and Kim and Ron chased off the intruder, the gremlins had decided to let Team Possible in on the secret of their existence. They avoided being seen by humans, as a rule, but it was felt that Rufus was proof that Kim and Ron were trustworthy.

"Just keep quiet about seeing us, will you?" he asked them.

"We prefer privacy to publicity," Meg added.

"We won't tell anyone we've met you," Kim promised.

"Say, how many gremlins are there around here, anyway?" Ron's question brought grins to the faces Meg, Gus, and Rufus.

"Quite a few, lad, quite a few," Gus replied. Then he gave a shrill whistle. At that signal, gremlins seemed to pop out of the floor, ceiling and walls, and out from under the furniture. They were on the bookshelves, the desktop and the file cabinet. Kim estimated that there had to be at least sixty of them, and she noticed that only about ten of the ones she could see were fifinellas.

"This isn't everybody," Meg remarked. "Somebody has to watch the Widgets, you know."

Kim gazed around the office and noted that all of the gremlins and fifinellas were smiling at her and Ron. "I suppose you've been watching us all the time we've been in here?" she asked.

"Not all the time. We respect privacy, after all," Meg explained.

"There's all of you, but you can't find out who this guy is that's damaging the airplanes?"

At Ron's question all the gremlin's smiles turned to annoyance.

"No, lad, we can't," said Gus. "Whoever it is, he's sneaky, silent and fast as a thief. We never hear him come or go in one of those cars Big Folks use, and he doesn't fly here either."

"We don't like to damage the airplanes, but we don't want anyone to go flying in one that might crash either." Meg sounded frustrated and unhappy. "And we can't let Big Folks know we're here or they might start trying to catch us."

"But you showed yourselves to us," Kim pointed out.

"You three," Gus said as he gestured at Kim, Ron and Rufus, "go around helping people and solving problems. Well, we need your help to stop that creep who's up to no good, and let us keep ourselves hidden from Big Folks."

Kim considered the matter carefully. They had to find out who the mysterious saboteur was and why he was damaging the airplanes. At the same time they had to prevent anybody else from learning about the existence of the gremlins.

"Do you think this saboteur will be back again tonight?" she asked Gus.

"Nope. Whoever it is, they never show up but once on any night. And not always on every night, either."

"We'll keep our lookouts posted, just the same," Meg added. "What he's doing is just plain _wrong!_"

Gus explained that during World War Two, when gremlins and Big Folks first met, the gremlins had done all they could to help British and American aviators. Without being seen, they kept the fliers alert and brought things to the attention of airmen and ground crews, so that many planes and their crews had survived the rage of battle and the hazards of flying in bad weather.

"Did you ever see a picture of an American bomber that was almost cut in two by a German fighter? It shows up in history books nowadays," Gus remarked.

"Yeah . . . it was in a book Ron and I used as a source for a history report last semester," Kim replied. "The bomber flew home safely and landed, but when they opened the door at the back so the crew could get out, the tail fell off!"

"There were twenty-seven Gremlins holding that thing together for three hours," said Gus. "Once it had landed they all jumped off and hid, so everybody thought it was just good luck and a tough airplane that got the crew home."

"It's nice to see these old planes being treated well and still flying," Meg added, "and if somebody is damaging them for fun, we want to stop them!"

"Well, if this villain isn't likely to come back again tonight, we'd better get some sleep," Kim remarked. "Tomorrow, Ron and I will see if we can learn anything from Mr. Herschel that might suggest who's doing the damage, and maybe lay a trap for them for tomorrow night."

"Sounds good to me, KP," said Ron. His yawn was matched by one from Rufus.

"Okay, folks. You get some shut-eye, and we'll let you know if anybody shows up again." Gus and Meg walked to the edge of the desk together, and then turned to wave to Ron, Kim and Rufus.

"Hey, where did all the others go?" Kim followed Ron's gaze, and saw that all of the gremlins that had been in the room had disappeared.

"No wonder they can keep out of sight," Kim observed. She went to the light switch as Ron and Rufus settled down for the rest of the night. Turning off the lights, Kim slipped into her own cot and reflected that this sitch was turning out to be very interesting, indeed!

**[End of Part Four]**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Disclaimer: **All characters, locations, events and situations in this story that are borrowed from the _Kim Possible _TV series are the property of the Disney company. All aircraft mentioned in this story are the creations of their designers. The plot and other characters are the product of my brain and thus are my responsibility.

**Airplanes, Spandules and Widgets, Oh, My! - Part Five**

"GOOOOD MORNING, TEAM POSSIBLE!" Kim was up from her cot and in a combat-ready pose before the echoes of Wade's voice from the Kimunicator had faded. Ron had fallen off his cot, winding himself in the blanket and sheets in the process. As Kim picked up the Kimunicator, deadly thoughts flitted through her mind, but she managed to keep her temper.

"That was _so_ not funny, _Mister_ Load! What's wrong with the usual method of calling me?"

Wade's face on the screen was a mixture of impishness and apology. "Sorry, Kim, but I've been trying for five minutes. You were both so sound asleep I had to use extreme measures," he added, doing his best to imitate Kim's 'Puppy-dog Pout' expression.

"Did you have to wake us up so early? It's only six-thirty," Ron muttered after glancing at the travel clock he'd left on the desk. Rufus sat up in the small nest that Ron had made for him on the desk with a spare towel. The mole rat yawned and stretched, obviously of two minds about getting up.

"Uh, guys, you're in the Eastern Time Zone," Wade explained. "It's 6:30 here in Colorado, but it's 8:30 where you are."

"Wow! I hope we didn't miss breakfast!" Ron exclaimed as he got to his feet, wildly shedding bedclothes. Rufus also sprang up from his nest at the thought of food.

"Breakfast is ready and waiting, out here!" Flo Lowe's voice came through the office door from the gift shop. "I telephoned your friend and asked him to get you up," she added, as Kim opened the door and looked out.

"Oh, thank you, Flo," Kim replied. "We'll be right out."

A short time later, after breakfast and a quick wash-up, Team Possible set to work. They soon found Walter Herschel and Albert Sydney in the hangar with the planes that had been damaged the night before, and Kim began to ask some questions.

"Mister Herschel, have you ever had anybody threaten to damage your planes or try to close this airport?"

"Nobody has ever threatened us, Miss Possible," Walt replied, and Albert added, "The folks who come here add something to the local economy. Can't say that I know any of the locals who would want us to leave."

"How about complaints about the noise? Anything like that?" Kim continued.

"We did have that fellow last year, Walt. Remember him?" Albert remarked, as he fitted a new control cable inside the fuselage of the German biplane. "He raised a fuss about the markings on this bird right here." Albert patted the rim of the plane's cockpit.

"Oh? I think it looks cool," Ron said.

"Well, this fellow Frank Hamilton didn't think so," Albert grunted.

"You see," said Walt, "we have each plane in a paint scheme and markings that is authentic for some year in the 1930s. This 'Jungman' is in standard German colors as a civilian training plane of 1935, but this guy Hamilton didn't like the markings that were on the tailfin."

Kim and Ron looked at the three broad horizontal stripes of black, white and red on the plane's tail. It seemed totally inoffensive to Kim and she said so.

"Dude, it looks okay to me," echoed Ron.

"According to German law in 1935, all German civilian airplanes had to have the German flag painted on the tailfin and rudder," Walt explained. "Just like you see here."

"I thought the German flag back then was red, with a white circle and a black swastika on it," said Kim.

"That was the flag of the Nazi political party," Albert observed. "German national colors in 1935 were three horizontal stripes, black over white over red, like this." He tapped the 'Jungman's' tailfin.

Walter went on. "We had the party flag painted on the left side of the tail, just the way it was done in 1935, but this fellow stormed into the office one day and raised blue blazes about it."

"Did he say why it bothered him?" Ron asked in a neutral voice.

"Not really," Walt replied. "He just said 'that flag' was an insult to the world and demanded that we rip it off the plane right away."

"What did you do then?" said Kim.

"We talked it over among ourselves that evening, decided that in this case authenticity could take a back seat, and changed it." Walt led them around to the left side of plane and pointed at the tail. Kim and Ron saw that it was marked exactly the same as the right side.

"Did Mr. Hamilton ever complain about anything else?" Kim asked.

"He never even showed up to thank us for changing this one," Albert grumbled.

"I have his address in the office, if you want it, Miss Possible."

"Thanks, I definitely want to check on that. But tell me, why did you say gremlins might be doing this? Did you ever see something that might have been a gremlin?"

"Well, no . . . but there have been a few times when tools have been moved around at night. And several times one of us has thought that they've seen something small scuttle across a hangar floor."

"Mostly at night," Albert remarked, as he tightened a connection, "but they didn't seem to be rats."

"Well, that prowler last night was too big to be a gremlin!" said Ron. Kim nudged him as a reminder to keep quiet about Gus and his friends.

"There! All set, Walt," said Albert. "But fixing the fabric will keep this one grounded until Sunday, at least."

"Well, we can use a different plane in the race," Walter replied. "The Waco and the Gypsy Moth are both okay, aren't they?"

"They seem to be, but I'll check them over, just in case."

"You're going to have an air race tomorrow?" asked Ron.

"Sort of. Tom and Joe are part of it, and they can tell you all about it. They were in Hangar Six a few minutes ago." Walt pointed toward the building that he meant.

Wanting to see the rest of the buildings in detail, Kim, Ron and Rufus moved on to Hangar Six, which was taller than the others. When they walked in they saw why.

"Whoa! Is it an airplane or a ship?" Ron gazed at what appeared to be a biplane sitting on top of a large, decked-over boat. The top of the upper wing was several feet higher than any of the planes they had looked at so far. Joe Williams came over to meet them, and explained that the machine was an amphibian that could land and take off from water or solid ground. He said it was called a 'Duck,' and began to explain about it in detail, but Kim asked him if it had been sabotaged since the trouble began.

"Not so far. If it ever is, and we catch the galah who did it, Tom will want a piece of his hide for a doormat!" Joe lowered his voice and added, "Tom loves this bird. If a 'Duck' could cook, he'd marry it."

"Ah, what is a 'galah' anyway?'' Ron inquired.

"An Aussie parrot that has no sense at all. Noisy, useless, an' silly as a square wheel," the man replied. "Makes a barnyard chicken look like a genius in comparison."

Rufus shook his head in dismay.

"Sounds like Doctor Drakken on a bad day," Ron observed.

Kim steered the conversation back to the subject of the sabotage, but Joe Williams was unable to add much to what Walter and Albert had already told them. There had been no threats against the airport and its flying programs, and nobody had openly protested about anything, except the German plane's tail markings.

After looking around the hangar, Kim and Ron were about to go on to other buildings when Tom Murdoch came in and spoke to Williams.

"Joe, I'll be flying the 'Gypsy Moth' in the race tomorrow. Care to let me win this time?"

"Strewth! You want me to spoil my record, Tom?"

"Say, what kind of an air race is this, anyway?" Ron asked. The English pilot promptly explained that when the signal was given, three pilots would each go to an airplane that was warmed up with its engine idling. Each pilot would get in, take off, fly a figure eight over the field, land, and return to the finish line.

"But there are two conditions," Tom told them. "You get from the start to your plane on some form of ground transport. We've got a Model T Ford, an old-time bicycle and a motorcycle with a sidecar. Everybody steers all over the place going and coming, as part of the act."

"And before the pilots head for the planes, each one has to drop his pants and leave 'em on the ground," Joe added, with a grin.

Rufus gave a squeak of surprise, while Kim managed to suppress a grin.

_Ron would have an unfair advantage in a race like that!_ she thought_._

"Mister Murdoch, doesn't it cost a lot to buy these old airplanes, fix them up, and operate this place?"

Ron's question reminded Kim that she had been wondering the same thing. How _did_ this place keep from going broke?

"A fair question, lad," the Englishman replied. "We get a certain amount of money from admissions on weekends, of course, and we've done some TV and film work with our planes, but a good part of the money we need comes from the farm profits."

"Farm profits?" Kim asked.

"That's the Wind Farm the boys set up," Flo Lowe explained, as she entered the hangar and joined the group.

"Back when we first got together, Clyde had a chance to buy a big piece o' land in Oklahoma," said Joe Williams. "He couldn't make the price, so we all kicked in and bought it as a group."

"We got a loan and started setting up wind turbines," Tom went on. "After some years they were turning out so much electricity that the power company's payments let us pay off the loan. What we get now keeps this place in the black, and lets us add a few more turbines each year."

"At last count we had eighty-five turbines on line," Joe proudly said.

"And most of the time they're all grindin' away like shimmy dancers in an old-time circus sideshow," Flo added with a wink. Ron looked slightly startled, while Kim blushed for a moment.

"So, nobody might be trying to take over your airfield just for the money it makes?"

"Unlikely, Miss Possible," Tom answered. "This place almost makes a profit, but it wouldn't be worth much as a money-maker by itself."

The rest of the day was spent examining the area so that Kim, Ron and Rufus would know all the ways a person might sneak onto the airfield in the night. Kim relayed the address of Frank Hamilton to Wade so that he could do a general web-search for anything about the man, and about four o'clock the pre-teen computer wizard contacted them on the Kimunicator.

"Did you find out anything about the guy, Wade?" Ron's question was echoed by an inquisitive mole-rat's chirp.

"Sort of, Ron. He's got an e-mail address, and he contibutes to quite a few blogs and chat groups, but he always seems to be against something that somebody else is suggesting."

"Such as?" Kim prompted.

"Well, in the past couple of national elections, he spoke up about voting out the people who were running for re-election, but he didn't say anything about the candidates who were trying to get elected for the first time. In the last local election, he said a lot about defeating tax increases for new roads and expanding the county library." Wade tugged at his chin thoughtfully. "He seems to be _against_ things all the time — and never _for_ anything."

"Any signs that he's actually done any damage to something?" Kim frowned as she spoke.

"Nope. He doesn't have a police record," Wade replied.

"Maybe he just likes to argue with people," Ron observed.

"Could be," Kim mused. "And it could be that he _isn't_ the person whose doing the damage." She tugged at her chin for almost a minute, considering the nature of the sitch, before deciding on what to do.

"Well, thanks, Wade. Let us know if you find out anything more." Kim shut off the Kimunicator and turned to look at Ron and Rufus. "I think we need to have a talk with 'our friends' again."

"You mean the . . . Oh, yeah." Ron glanced around to see if anybody had been listening. "Tonight, KP?"

"Tonight. We need more facts, and I think Gus can help us out."

**[End of Part Five]**

**By way of explanation: **In case somebody should accuse me of writing fiction, I want to say that the "Air Race" described in this part actually happened. I saw it done at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, near Poughkeepsie, New York. Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome was founded over fifty years ago by Cole Palen to collect, restore and fly old airplanes, and his group soon started doing airshows on weekends in the summer. Part of these airshows concerned the supposed World War One aerial battles between "The Black Baron of Rhinebeck" (Boo!) and "Sir Percy Goodfellow" (Yea!) of the Royal Flying Corps.

However, they also recreated things that actually happened in the 1930s, such as the "Air Race" Kim and Ron are told about. I know the folks at Old Rhinebeck did this, because I saw it one summer afternoon in 1971. And yes, the pilots did drop their trousers and fly the race in their shorts!


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Disclaimer: **All characters, locations, events and situations in this story that are borrowed from the _Kim Possible _TV series are the property of the Disney company. All aircraft mentioned in this story are the creations of their designers. The plot and other characters are the product of my brain and thus are my responsibility.

**Airplanes, Spandules and Widgets, Oh, My! - Part Six**

After supper Kim, Ron and Rufus settled down in the gift shop office to make plans. Ron promptly asked the question he had been puzzling about all afternoon. "KP, how do we get in touch with the gremlins again?"

"Rufus is going to help us do that," Kim replied, and the mole rat sat up with a surprised expression.

Kim asked him, "Rufus, could you go down that tunnel you found last night and get a gremlin or two to come up here?"

"No need for that, Miss Possible," said a familiar voice. Team Possible looked over at the office desk to see that Gus, Meg and at least a dozen more gremlins were standing on the desktop.

"We thought you might want to talk again tonight," Meg explained, "and Winston wanted to meet you, too."

"Who's Winston?"

Ron's question was promptly answered as a portly gremlin with a neat, white beard stepped out of the crowd.

Gus performed the introductions. "Ronald, Kim, this is Winston." He turned to Winston and added, "Sir, these are the Big Ones we told you about."

"How do you do, Miss Possible . . . Mr. Stoppable . . . and Rufus," Winston remarked. Kim noticed that his voice was a bit deeper than Gus'.

Gazing at this rather different gremlin, Kim observed that, like Gus, Winston had a small derby hat on his right horn. His mustache was larger and thicker — something like a walrus — and his neatly-combed beard made him look vaguely like Santa Claus. She realized that staring at him wasn't polite, so Kim said, "How do you do, sir?"

"I do rather well, Miss Possible," Winston answered. He went on, "By your expression I take it you've never seen a Spandule before, correct?"

"A . . . spandule . . . ?" Ron's remark was echoed by an inquisitive squeak from Rufus.

"We're the senior citizens among Gremlins," Winston explained. "Most of the time we work at high altitudes — above twenty thousand feet, that is — and with all these jet airliners and spacecraft buzzing about we don't get much spare time to spend on the ground."

"But this business with this saboteur concerns us all, so Winston dropped in to see if he could help," Meg remarked.

"I'm pleased to meet you, sir," Kim said, sticking to the rule of 'politeness to elders' that James Possible had drilled into his daughter when she was only four. "Do you have any ideas for catching the saboteur?"

"I was hoping you would have an idea or two," Winston replied. "After all, last night you came the closest to stopping him that anyone has."

"Well, if you can spot him again and let us know he's here, like last night, there's still the problem of that smoke-screen he can make," Kim remarked.

"Whatever it is that he uses to make that smoke," said Meg, "he carries it in a leather pouch on his belt. I saw him stick a hand into the pouch and bring out something that he threw on the hangar floor, just before the smoke appeared."

Kim frowned in thought. "If somebody could get that smoke-maker out of that pouch before he could use it, I'm sure Ron and I can handle him."

"Hey!" Rufus gave a squeak of protest. He wanted in on this, too!

"Don't worry, little buddy, you'll be with me," Ron reassured his pet.

"That just might work," Kim mused.

"Have you got something, KP?" Ron inquired.

Kim looked at Ron and Rufus, then turned back to Gus, Winston and Meg. "I think that the next time this guy shows up we can stop his operation — cold!" She went on to describe what she had in mind, and what each person — and gremlin! — would have to do. Once Kim finished, and the various questions put forward by Ron, Winston and Gus had been answered, the spandule walked back and forth on the desk top for a full minute, pondering the matter, before he spoke.

"There's just one problem with this, Miss Possible. Assuming we follow your plan and this villain is caught, he will certainly see us, and he'd have no reason to keep quiet about it." Winston frowned in annoyance. "Once he told people that Gremlins had a hand in his capture . . . " Winston paused for a moment. "Big Ones would come here, trying to find us. None of us would have a moment's peace."

"Only if people believed him," said Kim. "And if he's the only one who says that he saw gremlins, will anybody take his word for it?"

"What about Flo Lowe and Walt and the others, Kim? If they say that they've seen gremlins . . . "

"But they haven't, Ron! Only you, me and Rufus have seen them, and if we keep quiet then it's just this saboteur's word against everybody else's."

"Sounds sensible," Gus remarked. "Most Big Folks have to be shown before they believe something different from what they already know."

"And besides," Meg remarked, mischievously, "everybody already _knows_ that Gremlins don't exist."

Winston nodded. "Very well, Miss Possible. We'll try your plan, tonight."

"KP? What makes you think he'll come back again tonight?"

"Last night there was only a small bit of damage to two of the planes, Ron, and Mr. Sydney fixed them right away. If whoever-it-is wants to spoil the flying displays on the weekend, he'll be back to try and damage more of the planes tonight," she replied. Ron nodded in agreement and then went on.

"But how will we know where to catch him? There's a lot of buildings around this place."

Kim held up the Kimunicator. "If the gremlins can spot him, and make a 'blip' on the alarm system the way they did last night, we'll know exactly when he comes and where he is." She glanced around to be sure none of the gremlins would be seen by the visual pickup, and then called Wade. She explained what she wanted done, and in a matter of minutes the computer genius had set up a circuit that would wake Kim and let her know which building alarm had 'blipped.'

"You think the saboteur will be back tonight, eh? Well, if he shows up and disturbs the alarm system in any way, you'll know it right off."

"Thanks, Wade. As usual, you rock!"

In the screen Wade's expression became sorrowful. "Only 'as usual,' Kim? Not, 'as always?'"

"Huh?" Puzzled, Kim looked at the pre-teen webmaster, who promptly grinned and said, "Gotcha!"

"Wade, you're getting a sharp sense of humor," Kim smiled. "I'll watch out for it from now on."

"Okay!" Wade's mood changed from amused to serious. "Good luck tonight, guys."

"Why does it have to be just good luck?" Ron remarked. "I thought we used skill."

Rufus nodded in agreement, and growled, "Yeah!"

Kim grinned at her friends for a moment. "Let's stick to business, guys." Then she turned back to the Kimunicator.

"I'll call if anything turns up, Wade."

"Okay, Kim. Talk to you later!"

Once the Kimunicator was off, Gus spoke up. "We'll have every hangar covered, and as soon as this villain approaches any one of them, we'll signal you at once, Miss Possible."

"I'd really like to know how he gets here and gets away without making any sound," Meg commented.

"What roads go near this place?" Kim asked.

"It's only a short distance from the front gate to the highway," Gus explained, "and there's a back gate that opens on a local road. But we've never heard a motor from either road before he shows up or after he leaves."

"And he certainly doesn't _fly_ in!" Winston added. "We'd see that straight away."

"Well . . . once we catch him, we'll find out," said Kim.

"We'd all better get to our posts," said Winston. "When this villain appears we must be ready!"

Gus and Meg agreed, and with hasty 'good-byes,' the gremlins quickly left. Kim and Ron stretched out on the cots, still dressed and ready for any alert. Rufus made a nest for himself in the bedclothes next to Ron, while Kim set the Kimunicator beside her head where she could easily hear it. They all dozed off, wondering if the saboteur would return . . . or if it would just be a restless night . . . or if the gremlins would spot him if he did come. All questions were answered soon after midnight when a familiar call sounded in the office.

BEEP! BEEP! BE-BEEP! Kim came awake and scooped up the Kimunicator. She made a quick check of the information screen, and turned to the other cot, where Ron and Rufus were already awake and ready for action.

"Hangar number six, Ron! It's showtime!"

**[End of Part Six]**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Disclaimer: **All characters, locations, events and situations in this story that are borrowed from the _Kim Possible _TV series are the property of the Disney company. All aircraft mentioned in this story are the creations of their designers. The plot and other characters are the product of my brain and thus are my responsibility.

**Airplanes, Spandules and Widgets, Oh, My! - Part Seven**

It was scarcely a minute after the Kimunicator had beeped before Kim, Ron and Rufus were out the gift shop door. They silently moved from shadow to shadow toward Hangar Number Six with a level of stealth that any Japanese ninja, American Navy Seal or British S.A.S. trooper would have admired. As they came near the small door on the side of the building they could see it was slightly ajar . . . just as they had expected.

Team Possible slipped into the hangar and immediately noticed several dim spots of light just above the upper wing of the big 'Duck' amphibian plane. There were some faint noises coming from the plane, as if someone was using tools on the metal of the structure, and a dark shape was moving around in the cockpit. The spots of light all blinked twice, and then went out. A sighing sound, like a passing breeze, drifted through the hangar, and then a strange chant began.

_"Wipple Scrumpet in the sky,_

_Wipple Scrumpet in the sky,_

_ Pilots all were born to fly_

_ Higher than the highest high!"_

It sounded as if dozens of mole rats were chanting — in English! — all around the hangar. The dark shape straightened up and the metallic noises stopped, but the chanting went on.

_"We don't like this thing you do,_

_ We don't like this thing you do,_

_ Your ears and fingers we will chew_

_ So that we will be rid of you!"_

The hangar lights came on, and gremlins — dozens of them — came leaping down from the upper wing of the 'Duck' and from the roof beams of the hangar. Others swarmed up the sides of the plane and jumped on the black-clad figure, and every gremlin was chittering and squeaking like a rat. With a wild yell the figure leaped out of the cockpit, but as soon as his feet touched the hangar floor they shot out from under him. He landed face down, skidded across the floor and stopped at Ron and Kim's feet.

The gremlins came pouring out of the 'Duck' and across the floor to scramble over the intruder, while Rufus leaped from Ron's outstretched hand to land on the back of the figure's neck. He dove into the pouch that hung from the saboteur's belt, and a moment later leaped out again with a small, round object in his paws. He skittered across the floor to Ron, who scooped his pet up and put Rufus on his shoulder. The mob of gremlins that had swarmed over the intruder were tugging, pulling and pinching the figure wherever they could get a grip. Kim saw that there were Widgets, Fifinellas, Gremlins and a couple of Spandules all over the intruder like a rug . . . and whoever it was seemed to be totally terrified.

"Gettemoff!Gettemoff!Gettemoff!" the intruder bawled in a panic-stricken voice. He jumped to his feet, dripping gremlins, as Kim stepped forward and took a Kung-Fu pose.

Seeing Kim the intruder snarled, dipped a hand into his belt pouch and pulled out . . . Gus the gremlin! He stared at what he held, while Gus put his thumbs to his ears, stuck out his tongue and made a spluttering noise. The masked saboteur gave a yell and dropped Gus, whereupon Kim moved in to demonstrate several varieties of Kung-Fu to the intruder.

It was no contest. Kim grabbed the intruder's right arm and flipped him over in a hip-throw. As he staggered to his feet she gave him a flying kick that sent him sprawling across the floor until his head hit the 'Duck's' tailwheel. As he shakily got to his knees Kim deftly Judo-chopped his neck and the black-clad figure went limp. Then she pulled out some police restraints and neatly bound his hands together behind his back and his ankles together as well.

"Nice job, everyone!" Kim remarked. The gremlins gave a cheer while Rufus chirped, "We bad!"

Everyone remained silent as Kim called Walt Herschel, and then Flo Lowe, on the Kimunicator's cel-phone circuit. After she explained that the saboteur had been caught, both Walt and Flo replied that they would alert the county sheriff and be right over. Kim replied, "No hurry — this one's not going anywhere for a while."

After shutting off the Kimunicator Kim turned to the crowd of gremlins, to find Gus and Winston standing at the front.

"That was perfect, fellows," Kim enthused. "That chanting was _great!_ It really spooked him, whoever he is."

"It worked just as you said it would, Miss Possible," Winston observed. "This villain was expecting Big Folks to interrupt his activities, but he wasn't prepared for a mass attack by Gremlins."

Kim knelt and spoke to gremlin Gus. "That business of giving him a raspberry was perfect! You weren't hurt when he dropped you, I hope?"

"Not a bit, Miss Possible," Gus replied. "We're all very used to falling and landing safely."

"As a distraction, KP, I'd say that rates a 'Boo-Yah!,'" said Ron.

"It sure does. This guy was so upset about the chant and being swarmed over I don't think he even knew you and I were here, Ron."

"Did anybody really bite him?"

Ron's question received a general "E-e-e-e-w-w-w-w!" sound from every gremlin present. The fifinella's all held their noses, and Meg exclaimed, "Certainly not!"

"We just pulled at the clothes and mask," Gus explained.

"Having a lot of little creatures climb all over you when you don't expect it seems to bother Big Folks," Meg remarked. "We've used that trick once or twice before."

"Oh," said Ron. "Say, what did he slip on, anyway?"

To answer that question, Winston waved back at the 'Duck.' On the floor around the amphibian plane were several dozen acorns, just where someone would step when getting out of the cockpit.

"As soon as we spotted him at the door we signaled you, Miss Possible," Winston explained. "Everyone had an acorn to carry, and by the time he was inside and had climbed into the cockpit we were bringing them in to spread around where he'd slip on them."

"Some of the lads were ready with old control cables to trip him at the door if he ran for it before you were here — just as we had planned." As he spoke, Gus walked up to the comatose criminal's head. "But I'd really like to know why he was doing all this damage," the gremlin added.

"Maybe we'll find out once Mr. Herschel and Flo get here," Kim remarked.

Just then the black-clad intruder gave a groan.

"All right, everybody," Kim said in her 'Mission Mode' voice. "We've finished Phase One and Phase Two. Now it's time for Phase Three!" Rufus rubbed his front paws together in anticipation, while all the fifinellas giggled. A minute later the intruder woke and saw Rufus and a horde of gremlins standing around him. He jerked against the restraints and gave a yelp of surprise.

"Okay, dude, just keep quiet 'till the police get here," said Ron, as he and Kim walked into the intruder's field of view. "You've been enough trouble already."

"You ruined our sleep two nights in a row," Kim remarked. "Maybe we can get some peace, now."

"Get these little things away from me!" It was a man's voice, Kim noted.

"Don't worry, Rufus won't bite," Ron drawled, as he reached down and picked up his pet.

"Not that pink thing! All these other things — these little people — what are they?" His voice sounded panicky. _Just what we want,_ thought Kim.

"Uh, Kim, do you see anybody else in here besides us?" Ron's voice was clearly that of a puzzled person who saw nothing strange in the area.

"Nope. He must have hit his head when he fell down," she replied. "Remember that time you clunked your head on the goalpost at the end of that runback in the football game?"

"Oh, yeah. I thought I saw little Everlot sprites that looked like you flying around my head."

"You've got to see them! They're all over the place — gettemoff!" His voice shot up as Gus and several other gremlins scrambled up and over his back.

"Oh, be quiet!" Kim snapped. "I've fought real villains before; people who were trying to take over the world . . . even aliens from space! You're just a vandal who damages old airplanes." She looked up. "Anyway, I think I hear Mr. Herschel and Flo coming."

The sound of automobiles pulling up outside the hangar caused Ron, Kim and the intruder to glance toward the small door. When Kim looked back she saw that all of the gremlins had done a fast fade-out and were nowhere to be seen. The side door swung wide and Flo Lowe, Tom Murdoch and Walter Herschel came in.

"Did he damage the 'Duck?'" Tom asked, hurrying over to the big amphibian with scarcely a glance at the bound-up intruder. He climbed into the cockpit and began inspecting the plane's interior with a flashlight.

"So, this is the cause of our problems, is it?" Flo knelt down and got a grip on the black hood / facemask. "Let's see what he looks like." She peeled the covering away to reveal the bland, pale face of a man in his 30's, with brown hair.

"Well, fan me with a bowl of crankcase oil! It's Jake Jameson!" said Walter. "He rented an old farmhouse about ten miles to the east of here last spring," he added to Kim and Ron. "I've seen him around the field on airshow days a few times."

"KP, isn't this the one who was trying to go out on the field the day we got here?" Ron asked.

Kim nodded. "That's right. Do you suppose he's really that Mr. Hamilton?" she added to Walt.

"No," Walt answered, "Hamilton is at least fifty, and built like a tank. This one's younger, and a lot thinner."

"All right, you groundhog!" Tom shouted, as he jumped down from the 'Duck.' "Explain yourself! Why have you been damaging our planes?"

"When a masked villain is caught he's supposed to tell everybody why he's been villainous," Kim remarked.

"That's right, KP. It's a tradition," Ron added to Jameson. Somewhat to everyone's surprise, Mr. Jameson proceeded to 'tell all.'

"You idiots went and built your runway right where it was buried! I've searched for it for years, and then I find your stupid airfield right where it was hidden!"

Rufus gave a puzzled chirp, while Kim and Ron exchanged bewildered looks.

"Sounds like he's looking for buried treasure," Kim remarked. Turning to Flo Lowe she added, "Were there ever pirates on the Ohio River?"

"Some, about two hundred years ago," Flo answered. "But river pirates weren't the treasure-burying sort."

"You don't know. _I'm_ the only one who knows about it, so I should have it!" Jameson raged. "It was hidden when Morgan's men came through here in 1863 and forgotten! But I found out about it, and I'm going to get it!"

Walter suddenly snapped his fingers. "I'll bet he's talking about that box we found when we had the runway leveled!"

"What box is that?" Kim asked.

Walt explained that when the airfield was first built, ten years earlier, a small hill with an old tree stump on the top had stood right where the middle of the runway was going to be. It had been dug away and used to fill in some low spots around the area, and a small chest had been found buried in the hill beneath the tree stump roots. When he heard this, Jameson yelled and gave a series of jerks, trying to break the restraints.

"It's mine, you can't have it! I'd have got it if all those little weird things hadn't stopped me!"

"Hey, don't call Rufus weird!" Ron snapped. "He's really a sensitive little guy."

"Yes," Kim remarked, "you don't want him to get mad at you."

Rufus bared his teeth, gave a scowl and made a growl to back up Kim's comment.

Jameson sneered. "You know what I mean! All those little things that looked like tiny people, only three inches high. There must have been a thousand of them in here," he added to Tom and Walter. Flo shook her head and made a 'tsk-tsk' sound.

"Sounds to me like his gyros have tumbled. Did he hit his head when you caught him?" she added to Kim.

"You fools!" Jameson screamed. "They were all over the place! Hundreds of little people! I saw them! They were here!"

Just then the side door opened again and two men in police-type uniforms walked in.

"Hello, Walt; what have you got for us?" said the first man.

"Kim Possible and her partner caught this character trying to sabotage the 'Duck.' And we're fairly certain he's been sneaking onto the field and damaging the planes a lot, in the past six weeks," Walter explained.

"No! No! It was all those little guys — they crawled all over me and tripped me!"

The Sheriff looked at Walter, and then at Flo, who made a spinning motion at the side of her head with one finger. The Sheriff nodded knowingly, and looked down at the black-clad form of Jameson. "Don't you worry, fella, we'll put you in a nice, safe cell and none of those 'little guys' will bother you. Come on, Fred, let's get him in the car."

"You want us to come to your office in the morning to file a complaint?" asked Flo. "We've got the flying day displays tomorrow, you know."

"No, I'll come around with the laptop and we can fill in the details here," said the Sheriff, as he and Fred carried the struggling saboteur to the door. "And, thank you, Miss Possible, for your assistance."

"It's no big," Kim replied. Then she held out the item Rufus had lifted from Jameson's belt pouch. "You'd better take this, officer. I think it's some kind of smoke-screen maker. We caught him before he could use it."

"Thanks again." The sheriff examined the object, then took a plastic evidence bag from his pocket and put the item in it. "One of my deputies was in Army Ordnance before he joined the force, and knows a lot about EOD. I'll have him take care of it." He turned back to Fred and helped his deputy get the struggling, protesting Jameson out of the hangar and into the Sheriff's car.

Once Jameson had been secured in the back seat, the Sheriff and his deputy drove off into the night. Tom Murdoch had examined the insides of the 'Duck' carefully and reported that only superficial damage had been done. "But Albert and I will go over it to be certain it's all right."

"Well, that can wait until morning," Walter commented. "We better all get some sleep in what's left of the night; tomorrow is going to be busy."

**[End of Part Seven]**

**By way of explanation: **The first verse of the gremlin's chant ("Whipple scrumpet in the sky . . .") is from the book _The Gremlins; A Royal Air Force Story_, by Flight Lieutenant Roald Dahl, RAF. The second verse ("We don't like this thing you do . . . ") is my own creation.

EOD stands for Explosive Ordnance Disposal, and is the highly skilled and dangerous are of dealing with unexploded bombs, grenades and shells.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Disclaimer: **All characters, locations, events and situations in this story that are borrowed from the _Kim Possible _TV series are the property of the Disney company. All aircraft mentioned in this story are the creations of their designers. The plot and other characters are the product of my brain and thus are my responsibility.

**Airplanes, Spandules and Widgets, Oh, My! - Part Eight**

Saturday morning was clear, sunny and mild, and a fair-sized crowd began arriving at Yesterday's Airport as soon as it opened at 9:00 AM. Kim and Ron kept a low profile and just enjoyed the experience of the day. Neither one had ever attended an airshow like this one, where spectators could get so close to the planes. After a time a large, single-engine biplane was rolled out onto the landing ground and an announcement was made that tickets were being sold for rides in the big biplane. A line quickly formed, and Frank Gifford began taking up four passengers at a time.

As they watched the plane come in for a landing, Kim and Ron were greeted by Tom Murdoch, who said that he'd been looking for them.

"Mister Murdoch, what sort of a plane is this one?" Ron spoke before Tom could tell them what he wanted them for.

"It's a Standard D-25," Tom replied. "It carries four passengers at a time on short hops."

"Did you modify it for doing that?" Kim was curious about these planes and the people flying them.

"No. Back in the 1920s pilots barnstormed around the country giving people rides, and the more they could carry on each flight, the more money they'd make. This plane was designed to carry four people plus the pilot for the same operating cost of a World War One trainer that could only carry one passenger." They all watched as four people got out of the D-25, and four more quickly climbed in.

"It's a rugged, reliable, hard-working ship that's been taking people on joyrides for decades." Tom smiled at Kim and Ron. "I'm ready to wager fifty bucks that when the hundredth anniversary of the first flight of a D-25 comes around there'll still be a couple of them working the airshow circuit." He gave them an inquiring look. "Care to place a bet?"

"I don't think so," Kim grinned in reply.

"In any case, I thought you'd like to know that we can fly you back to Louisville anytime you want. Has your friend laid on transport for you?"

Kim explained that she had talked to Wade that morning, and he had arranged for a flight to take them back to Middleton from the same airport where Flo Lowe had picked them up.

"Well, I can fly you back to Louisville in the 'Duck,'" Tom remarked. "Albert and I checked it over and it's in perfect condition. When do you need to be there?"

Kim told him and Tom's face lit up. "Oh, good! The show will be over by then, so you'll get to see the festivities. I'm flying the 'Gypsy Moth' in the race, and I'd better go check it over before we break for lunch." He hurried off to the hangar marked 'De Havilland,' just as Flo Lowe came up to greet them.

"If I can tear you away from the airplanes for a few minutes, the Sheriff is here and he wants you to check his report about catching that fellow last night."

"Sure," said Kim, "we'd be glad to." As they walked back to the office Flo explained that they had found Jameson's car parked on the road that ran behind the airfield. "It's one of those hybrid vehicles with an electric motor and a small gasoline engine," she explained.

"I see," Kim mused. "If he drove up real slow he'd only be using the electric motor, and hardly make a sound."

"That must be how he could come here and get away without - " Ron broke off what he was saying as Kim nudged him sharply.

"Yes, Ron, that's why we never heard anything the first night he was here, or when he came last night."

The Sheriff had brought a laptop computer that had his report form on it. He asked Kim and Ron a few questions, tapped in the data, and asked Kim to check it. When she said it was correct he saved it and said that he'd e-mail them a copy.

"No need for that," Kim remarked, and handed him a short cable connector. "Plug this into the USB port and you can download a copy to the Kimunicator."

Once this was done Kim asked the Sheriff if he had found out what it was that Mr. Jameson had been looking for. He chuckled for a moment before answering.

"We checked out Jameson's house this morning and found an old diary of a man who lived in this area back in the middle of the nineteenth century. It appears that Jameson was his great-great-great-grandson. Anyway, when Morgan's Raiders came through this area during the Civil War, the ancestor buried an oak chest with his valuables in it to hide them from the Confederates." He shook his head. "Jameson couldn't find where the chest was until he turned up an old letter in some things his great-aunt had left him. It explained where the chest was buried, but the directions were pretty vague. He spent years trying to figure out where the chest was, and only narrowed it down last spring."

"Morgan's Raiders?" Ron asked. "Who were they?".

The Sheriff explained that in July of 1863, during the Civil War, a Confederate Army cavalry force crossed the Ohio River and made a long raid through Indiana and into Ohio before they were finally all captured. "It was led by Brigadier-General John Hunt Morgan," he finished.

"Mister Herschel said that you found this box," Kim asked Flo. "Was there anything valuable in it?"

"Just stock certificates and bonds for companies and banks in the area," Flo answered. "It was valuable stuff in 1863, but not any more. Except for a few shares in the Wabash and Erie Canal Company," she added.

"I thought the Erie Canal was in New York state, not Indiana," Ron remarked.

"This was a different canal," Flo explained. "It was a big project in the early 19th century for a barge canal from Lake Erie to the Wabash River." Flo shrugged. "It made a profit for a few years, but once the railroads came in the canal system went broke."

"So, all the stuff in this box wasn't worth anything? Now that really tanks!" Kim, Flo and the Sheriff all looked at Ron quizzically.

"I mean, this guy Jameson spent a long time hunting for a treasure, and then it turns out to be worthless," he explained.

"Not entirely worthless," said Flo. "When we found that box and what was in it we went to the Indiana Historical Society and asked if they'd want some of the certificates. They were all in perfect shape, so the Society put some in their files, and then we had an auction to sell the rest. Some people collect old stock certificates and stuff about the Wabash and Erie Canal."

"Let me guess," Kim said with a smile. "They went for high prices?"

"The profits from the auction helped us start that wind farm of ours."

"When Jameson hears that, he'd probably flip out," said the Sheriff, "if he wasn't flipped already." He shook his head and grinned. "He keeps saying that hundreds of little people tripped him up and swarmed all over him in the hangar last night."

"Flying blind without instruments," Flo remarked. "Pretty sad."

The Sheriff folded up his laptop and rose from his chair. "Well, thanks again for everything Miss Possible . . . Mr. Stoppable." Rufus poked his head out of his usual pocket and gave an indignant squeak.

"Oh, yes, thank you, too, Rufus," the Sheriff added.

"Our pleasure, sir," said Kim.

The rest of the day went quickly, with both Kim and Ron enjoying the airshow. Once it was over and the spectators were leaving, Walt, Frank and several of the ground crew brought the 'Duck' out of its hangar so Team Possible could be flown back to the Louisville airport.

As the 'Duck' was wheeled out to the runway, all six of the pilots gathered around Kim and Ron offering their thanks for solving their problem. "Now remember, if you ever need some flying help from a bunch of old-timers, be sure to call on us," said Walter Herschel. He was echoed by the other four men. Then Flo Lowe stepped up and handed Ron a sweatshirt from the rack in the gift shop.

"I noticed how you kept eyeing these, Ronald, so this is both a 'thank you' and a souvenir."

"Gee, thanks, Miss Lowe . . . I mean, Flo."

Ron shook it open and Kim smiled when she saw that the sweatshirt had 'It Ain't Worth A Thing If It's Just Got One Wing!' printed on it.

Clyde and Frank stowed Team Possible's bags in the lower compartment of the 'Duck,' while Tom climbed up the side of the big amphibian plane, followed by Kim and Ron. As soon as all three had their seat-belts fastened Tom started the plane's engine, went through the takeoff checklist, and then signaled for the wheel chocks to be pulled away. The plane taxied to the downwind end of the runway, and after a final check Tom took off and headed toward the Louisville area.

The cockpits were noisier than the 'Staggerwing' had been, so Kim, Ron and Tom all wore headphones and spoke into microphones for conversation. Tom told them some things about the 'Duck,' and some of the things planes of this type had done in the 1930's and 1940's. But as they neared the Ohio River, Tom excused himself so he could contact the airport. Kim and Ron could hear what Tom said, and the answers from the control tower.

Tom cleared his throat and put out a call: "Bowman tower, Bowman tower: Quack! Quack! Quack!"

To the surprise of Kim and Ron the control tower at Bowman Field calmly replied, _"Duck aircraft you are cleared to land on runway 14. Be alert for the Learjet now landing ahead of you."_

Tom keyed the microphone again and answered, "Quack-Quack!" He brought the plane in for a smooth landing and taxied up to the same building where Kim and Ron had met Flo Lowe. After their bags were unloaded, Kim asked the pilot, "How is it the control tower knew who you were?"

"We're in and out of this field three or four times a week, and usually with the 'Duck,'" he explained. "After five years of that, the control tower knows us pretty well." He shook hands with all three of them (Rufus just shook Tom's finger), and went back to the plane.

As they watched the 'Duck' take off, Kim asked what Ron had thought about the 'air race' at Old Time Airport. "Three pilots dropping their pants before going to their airplanes seemed a bit more impressive than the times you've lost your pants on a mission, Ron."

"I don't know, KP," Ron drawled lazily. "They haven't got my experience at that sort of thing. When I do it, I do it with style."

**[End of Story]**


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